Leeo

Leeo, Inc. was a Palo Alto-based smart home company established in 2013 by co-founders Adam Gettings and Eddy Chan. Gettings, with a background as the CTO and chief robot designer at RoboteX, a provider of first responder robots, and Chan, a venture investor and former lawyer, aimed to address the complexity and high cost of smart home devices. The company secured significant financial backing, raising a total of $40.6 million over three funding rounds, including a notable Series A round of $37 million in September 2014. Key investors included Formation 8, E. ON, and Lucas Venture Group.

The company's flagship and only product was the Leeo Smart Alert Nightlight, launched in late 2014. This plug-in device served multiple functions: a customizable color nightlight, an environmental monitor for temperature and humidity, and a safety alert system. Its core feature was a microphone designed to listen for the specific sounds of existing smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Upon detecting an alarm, the device would send a push notification and a phone call to the user's smartphone via a dedicated iOS and Android app. This allowed homeowners to be alerted to potential emergencies even when they were away from home, without needing to replace their existing detectors.

Leeo's business model was its critical vulnerability. The company sold the Smart Alert Nightlight for a one-time fee, initially around $99-$100 and later for $50, but did not charge a recurring subscription for the monitoring service. This model proved unsustainable for maintaining the necessary cloud infrastructure and support services. In August 2019, the company informed customers it was running out of money and seeking a buyer. Despite exploring options like a subscription service called Leeo Ping, which was announced at CES 2019, the efforts were too late. The company officially discontinued its services in October 2019, rendering the smart features of the device inoperable and turning the product into a simple, non-connected nightlight. Keywords: Leeo, smart home, IoT, smart nightlight, smoke detector alert, carbon monoxide alarm monitor, home safety device, Adam Gettings, Eddy Chan, Formation 8, smart home failure, connected device, home automation, environmental sensor, mobile alerts, hardware startup, venture capital